McDonald's 34,492 restaurants: where are they?

A new restaurant in Vietnam means that McDonald's will be serving up food in 116 countries around the world next year. See where they all are and find out how many restaurants there are per person in those countries

Two employees stand behind the counter of the first McDonald's fast-food restaurant in India, back in 1996. How many restaurants are there now? Photograph: Agence France Presse/Getty

More than 73 years after McDonald's first opened its doors to customers in California, the company is doing the same in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A restaurant chain that has become synonymous with fast-food, the focus of anti-capitalist protests and the benchmark of corporate success may now stop and pause to think – we certainly are – where are we now?

Here's a summary of the best Mcnumbers we've collected so far.

3,000 more restaurants in five years

Vietnam joins Armenia, Bosnia and Trinidad as one the newest members of the McDonald's club. See where they are all based using our interactive map below.

Some burger enthusiasts may have to travel great distances or join long queues however, as the number of citizens per restaurant suggests. Vietnam's single restaurant has to cater to a population of 88.7 million while in India the presence of 300 restaurants would have to ration severely if all of the country's 1.2 billion citizens wanted a fast bite.

At the other extreme sits McDonald's US homeland, where for every 22,174 citizens there is a restaurant waiting to serve. That may seem surprising given that for every hospital in America there are twice as many people waiting in line.

Plan to win

That's the strategy laid out by McDonald's chairman Andy McKenna (pictured left) in the company's annual report – and it appears to be working.

Despite the global financial crisis, McDonald's reports show that the number of restaurants has grown by 10% since 2007. Net profit is also up – from $2.4bn in 2007 to $5.5bn last year.

Other fast-food chains like Burger King pale in comparison, with just a third of the number of restaurants that McDonald's operates. They're not helped by mishaps such as the one in February this year when their account was hacked.

Big macs?

As well as being the focus of environmentalists' concerns, McDonald's has frequently come under criticism for the calories on its menu. Is there any similarity in patterns of obesity and branches? Using data from the World Health Organisation we checked the correlation – everywhere from Sri Lanka where 8.5% of people are overweight or obese, to Samoa where 82.6% of the country are.

There is a correlation, but it's not as strong as we first thought. Watch how the order of countries changes when you switch the indicator at the top of the graph.

What's the beef?

There isn't always any – in India, there's no beef on the menu at all. Instead, customers can go for a Veg PizzaMcPuff followed by a McAloo Tikki and wash it down with some Kinley Water.

A blogger posts a picture of the Veggie McPuff. 'It tasted like a Hot Pocket with vegetable soup in it. It was okay for what it was, but I wouldn't call it Pizza.'

We don't know yet what clients in Vietnam can order, but maybe you do. Tell us about your fast-food experiences below.